Underclassmen clean up at WCU awards dinner

CONCORDVILLE – Several themes emerged during West Chester’s 47th Annual Football Banquet on Saturday at the Concordville Inn, but the primary takeaway was that the Golden Rams appear to have plenty of star power returning for the much anticipated 2013 season.

Underclass stars like running back Rondell White, linebacker Ronell Williams and kicker Shawn Leo walked away with a big chunk of the most prestigious awards. And White (West Chester Rustin) nabbed a pair of the biggest: the Golden Ram Football Club Player of the Year Award as well as Team MVP.

The first sophomore All-American in WCU history, Williams shared the Timothy’s of West Chester Defensive Player of the Year Award with senior safety John O’Donnell (West Chester Henderson). And Leo – who set the program’s career field goal mark in just three seasons – was the recipient of the Bill Vansant Memorial Special Teams Award.

“We’re stocked,” said White, who established West Chester’s single season rushing record with 1,548 yards last fall and led the nation in all-purpose yardage. “We just have to stay focused and keep working hard. If we do that, this team has a chance to do some big things.”

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Saturday was also a celebration of a resilient senior class that endured the first back-to-back losing seasons at WCU in 22 years, but spearheaded a bounce-back 7-4 mark in 2012. And nobody exemplified this better than quarterback Mike Mattei, who began the season as a backup but was thrust into the limelight when Sean McCartney was injured in the opener and lost for the year.

“We had a lot of injuries, and other kids just kept stepping in and doing the job,” head coach Bill Zwaan said. “There were a lot of positives to point to, but a lot of negatives to learn from. I think this group learned a lot.

“Seven and four is not exactly where we want to be, but there were a lot of feel-good things that happened. This group had a lot of character guys who turned it around. But we didn’t get to where we wanted to go, and the kids understood that. It wasn’t like they were satisfied with a winning record.”

Mattei started the final 10 games and wound up being one of the nation’s most efficient signalcallers. He was named the Lew and Muz Peck Offensive Player of the Year.

“My redshirt freshman year (2008), we won the PSAC East,” Matei recalled. “And while everybody was getting fit for their championship rings, I decided to pass because I didn’t play and wanted to wait until I won one on my own. Well, it just never happened.

“To all of the returning players, you don’t want to leave this place ring-less.”

The rest of the award winners:

-- Coaches Offensive Scout Team Award: Andrew Derr.

-- Coaches Defensive Scout Team Award: Ralph Reeves.

-- Kelly’s Sports Unsung Hero Award: Jim Kelly.

-- Mark and Julie Drochek Leadership Award: Carl Barnes.

-- Ted Novak Memorial Award: Nick Hall.

-- Scholar Athlete of the Year: Sean Behan.

-- President’s Award: Lynn and Mimi Curry.

DELAWARE PASSES ON ZWAAN; HIRES BROCK

With 77 career victories during his 10 year reign at WCU, Zwaan is currently 14 wins behind his predecessor, Rick Daniels, who is in second place on the program’s all-time wins list. He’s barely halfway, however, to W. Glenn Killinger’s school record of 147.

Zwaan could conceivably pass Daniels’ total of 91 at some point during the 2014 season, and it looks like he’ll get the chance after his alma mater, Delaware, hired Rutgers offensive coordinator Dave Brock to replace K.C. Keeler last month.

“The Delaware Athletic Director (Eric Ziady) called me -- like a lot of the coaches in the Delaware football fraternity -- and told me he already had someone in mind,” said Zwaan, who was the starting quarterback when the Blue Hens won the Division II National title in 1974.

A resident of southern Chester County, Keeler was surprisingly fired in the first week of January after 11 seasons at Delaware. He went 86-52 with the Blue Hens and led them to a Division I-AA national title in 2003 and championship game appearances in 2007 and 2010. Delaware was 5-6 last fall.

“I was very surprised,” Zwaan said. “The timing of it was very strange. K.C. had a bad year (in 2012) but he did a pretty good job.”

RAMS TO HOST SIX HOME GAMES

For the first time in a quarter century, West Chester will host six football games in a season. The recently released schedule for 2013 includes the season opener on Sept. 7th against New Haven at Farrell Stadium. It fills the open date created when WCU and FCS Delaware decided to end a series that began a few months before the attack on Pearl Harbor.

“It’s going to help us a lot,” Zwaan said. “Not playing Delaware anymore is disappointing to a certain extent, but we will be hosting a very good Division II team that we can compete against. If we can start off on the right foot and get a win there, it’s going to help us in the region.”

In all, the WCU-UD series included 55 meetings, with the Blue Hens prevailing 47 times, including the final 19 meetings.

The rest of the Golden Rams home schedule features three straight home games against PSAC foes Kutztown, California (Pa.), and East Stroudsburg in late Sept.-early Oct., and the final two regular season games versus Bloomsburg (Nov. 9) and Clarion (Nov. 16).

“The main objective is to protect your home,” said WCU’s All American linebacker Ronell Williams. “We don’t want anybody to come here and take what’s not theirs.”

The Rams were 4-1 at Farrell in 2012.

WCU NABS VERBAL COMMITMENTS

Traditionally, West Chester doesn’t announce its full recruiting class until the spring. But the Rams have already received verbal commitments from at least seven high school seniors.

The list features first team all-staters Mike Unger and Jeff Gulyas from the Lehigh Valley. Unger is a 6-foot-3, 285-pound offensive lineman from Parkland. Gulyas is a 6-3, 210-pound defensive end from Allentown Central Catholic.